3 Ways to Change Your Restaurant Efficiency

If you own or operate a restaurant, you know the importance of order and following specific guidelines to maximize efficiency, lower costs, and increase overall earnings. Below are 3 strategies that you can use to take your restaurant to a higher level of operational efficiency:

1. Analyze Processes and Procedures

A restaurant is a service business, meaning that customers will judge you according to the way you serve them. They will consider the time it takes to place an order and get the food delivered, the attitude of waiters and waitresses, and the quality of the food.

As a manager, you should examine the steps that restaurant employees have to follow when serving customers. Start with the kitchen area and find out how the food is prepared, cooked, and assembled on the plate. Then, look at how the waiters and waitresses deliver the food. Notice how they engage with the client, handle complaints and suggestions, and report back to the chef.

To identify inefficiencies in the above processes, use process mapping. Mapping allows you to recognize service slowdowns and take steps to get rid of them for fast deliverance of services.

2. Point-of-Sale (POS) System

POS systems for restaurants allow you to keep track of sales, food inventory, cash flows, and other forms of bookkeeping. It’s perhaps one of the best technology solutions for your restaurant.

A POS system allows you to keep track of the food inventory. The system enables you to record the quantity and price of delivered food products, and monitor the usage of ingredients and different vegetables when cooking. The system also allows you to know which ingredients or foods have been depleted.

Since everything is automated, POS enables you to accurately estimate how much you spend in one financial year. If there are any inefficiencies, the figure will be different every financial year. If that happens, you examine the inventory figures at different points to find the source of the inefficiency and fix it.

3. Examine the Restaurant’s Layout

Size matters when running a restaurant business. To improve operational efficiency take a look at the size of your premise – both the back and front. Your restaurant shouldn’t be too big or small.

If it’s too big, you use more money for labor costs since you have to hire more people to serve the customers. In addition, a big space is likely to cost you more in terms of energy and maintenance expenses. Alternatively, if the place is too small, clients will feel ‘too squeezed’, and you won’t get a lot of traffic due to limited seating capacity.

When looking at the layout, try to gauge the business situation as it is. For example, if the customer numbers have dropped for 3 consecutive months, you may have to move to a smaller location to save on operational costs.

Due to the uncertain nature of the business cycle, you must change your restaurant’s efficiency every once in a while to make sure that you remain profitable. Use the above 3 ways to achieve maximum productivity when you do that.